Mann Wears A Camera And Gets A Mickie D's Beat Down

The image to the left comes from a story in the Christian Science Monitor. The man showed in the picture is Steve Mann. Inventor, professor, and memory loss suffer. Apparently Mr. Mann suffers from a memory loss issues. So he invented a pair of glasses that mount to his head, capture images he sees, and then somehow shoots reminders into his brain using a screen mounted over one eye.

It is a technique he hope will one day assist Alzheimers patients. And if you are thinking that these glasses remind you of the Google Glass project we have told you about before, then keep reading. Because this story could illustrate how society as a whole will respond to this little fun project.

Mr. Mann heads into a Paris McDonalds while on vacation. The manager approaches him and lets him know that pictures are not allowed in the restaurant. Steve forks over a doctor's note, and the manager lets him in. Steve gets his meal, is sitting down near the entrance to eat when he is approached by two more employees. One, without warning according to Mr. Mann, grabs the thing and tries to rip it off. The problem is, you cannot take it off without tools. The process both damaged the device, and twisted his poor head all over the place. Mr. Mann gets the guy calmed down and again shows the doctor's note.

The employee shows that note to the the other employee and they crumple it up in a wad and throw him out of the building and into the street. This further damages the device and now barely functions, and may even be causing eye damage by flooding his eyes with laser light.

Again, all of this according to Mr. Mann.

Steve heads down the street and tries to get the police involved. They refuse. He heads to the consolate for help. They refuse. So now he is making his story public. McDonalds now reports they are looking into it.

Mr. Mann is seeking no punitive damages to McDonalds. Only the repair of his device, and a public statement of some sort. Seems fare if you ask me.

So now let's circle around to Google Glass. Google seems bent on getting a wearable camera/phone/PDA onto our heads in the very near future. And those of us that bother to read these announcement treat it with acceptance. Some of us may think it is weird and would never wear one, but we are not angered and repulsed.

Well what about the rest of society that has no clue this is coming. We read stories everyday about officers acting rashly over being recorded, mom's in parks freaking out because a father is taking pictures of his own child in a public space. It is crazy what we have seen highlighted in the news over the recent few years.

I think Google best engage in a huge public affairs campaign before releasing their device. Either that, or issue warning stickers to not go into a McDonalds with one of them on. Just sayin...

You can read the full story here.

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Posted in: google glass